Background: I’m an intermediate (to be generous) surfer, novice builder. This is my fourth board, second with a color lam. I’m 5’10 155 and in my late 40s. My performance short board is 5-10x19x2.5x29L. My other favorite is a Seaside at 5-4x30L.
Inspiration: I had a Roberts Pool Toy that I really liked when the surf was small or soft. It paddled like a champ and I could pump it and turn it, but it felt really big (5’9” 40L) and I wanted something that paddled nearly as well but felt a little higher performance. I have a friend who surfs a Stamps WTF and loves it, short, wide tail, easy paddler, but I had trouble keeping it on rail because it was so wide. I was looking for a board that would make me get rid of the Pool Toy.
Target Surf: Reef break in north county San Diego. Wave is rarely steep or hollow, unless it’s a really low tide. Generally it’s on the slow/crumbly side. Typically knee to head high.
Design Goal: My Pool Toy was fantastic at maintaining speed through corners and getting through soft sections, but it was harder to dig in the rail and hold a rail when it got bigger. My guess is this was due to both overall volume and rail thickness/design. I wanted to make a board with roughly the following characteristics (1-10 scale):
Ease of paddle: 7
Down the line speed/ability to pump: 9
Speed through turns: 8
Hold/stability: 7
Basic ideas/theories: Here’s where I would love feedback from the veterans, as I’m making a lot of assumptions. Wide tail to maintain speed both down the line and through turns. Wide but foiled nose to help with paddling but minimize swing weight. Low entry and exit rocker for ease of paddling and speed. Moderate single to double concave through the fins for lift/speed and vee at the back to help go rail to rail. Medium rails for hold/stability in larger/faster surf.
Specs: 5-7x20.5x2.5x32L. 4+6oz top, 6oz bottom, basic e-glass. 2# EPS foam, Apex epoxy resin. Other details are in the image.
The build: AKU Shaper designed from scratch, cut locally, everything else done in my garage. Got the cut blank from the shaper and finished the nose and tail, sanded out the ridges with a screen, cleaned up the rails and concaves and ensured everything measured out. Sealed the blank with spackle, dried and sanded smooth.
Because I was doing color I decided to install the futures boxes post-lamination so they looked cleaner. When I laminated the bottom I immediately realized I needed to strain the resin through a paint strainer as it looked like I sneezed dye all over it. I remedied this by doing a heavy color fill coat (strained twice) with very little sanding. This made the board a bit heavier but hid the dots. The top lam went much more smoothly but the cutlap showed through so I did a color fill coat on the top as well as my goal was a totally opaque finish. I’m not sure that is possible without going over the recommended max pigment:resin ratio and I’m not sure I’d try it again as I’m just adding resin weight to the board. The colored resin did look really pretty when glossy though.
I installed 5 fin boxes because I’m nowhere near skilled enough to design something specifically for three or four, so 5 boxes maximizes the possibility that the board doesn’t completely suck. I’m getting better and better at putting boxes into moderate to heavy concaves. It’s tricky to get just the right depth and I shot a little too deep on back end of the front boxes. I have the Futures template and bits and the Makita router. I filled the recess with some extra glass and taped off the inside of the boxes when I fill coated it so everything was flush. I do take a lot of time to make sure they go in at the right angle. I was shocked when I started measuring the cant on my high-end name-brand boards, some were off as much as 2 deg side to side with no sign of impact/damage. I got the boxes in and laid a patch over each and then a patch over the entire tail. I realize now that my tail patch should’ve had a V-cut to prevent a natural weak/break point.
From there everything went pretty smooth. I laid my logos with 4oz patches over them, did a final coat of resin and sanded smooth. I feel like I have good control over my power sander now and I find myself leaning back on a simple wood sanding block to do a lot of the blending/smoothing of the rails and tail. I’ve been fortunate to have pretty good luck with epoxy curing. I typically use a shop vac with a brush head to clean the board and sometimes ethanol to wipe it down, but usually that’s not necessary. Hands are gloved always, bunny suit, respirator when sanding, etc.
Does it suck? Overall I’m happy with the board, but I do feel I missed the mark in a few areas. It’s my second favorite board I’ve made (of 4) and my favorite is my performance shortboard which I don’t typically ride unless I go somewhere different and it’s big and steep. So it’s getting its share of usage.
First the good: It paddles really well for its size. Everyone I hand it to in the water says it’s ridiculously fast and it does carry speed well both down the line and through turns. My friend who rides the Stamps WTF loved it and offered to buy it, so I feel like I didn’t make a total turd. I’ve never felt the extra weight from the fill coats hurt performance significantly and may actually add a little stability. It is fun and fast as a quad and swapping to thruster adds stability for larger/steeper days. The rails feel about right and I’m able to dig them in adequately. And I think the color turned out good.
The bad: I think I could’ve built it bigger. Another few inches and more foam in the nose would make it a paddling beast and probably not hurt performance too much. 5-10x35L would’ve probably worked better. I really think I like concaves all the way through vs a vee at the tail. I believe the vee makes it feel more stuck to the water and feel like it’s sitting lower in the water, even if it isn’t slower. I probably would narrow the tail a hair and ditch the vee, the idea being the narrower tail wouldn’t require the vee to go rail to rail easily. Maybe even a little swallow to loosen it up. I really like feeling what I think is the lift created by concaves and the ability to pump and generate speed quickly.
Makes me want to build another and keep experimenting. In that vein, I welcome all feedback and corrections of my logic/assertions, and thoughts on how to fix the things I don’t like.
Really enjoyed reading through your process, the concaves look amazing! I’m a kook who has shaped a couple boards so im pretty new to it, so bear that in mind… I’m currently getting a template together for a mini-simmons and so my mind is actually thinking about some of the adjustments that could address your stated issues from that point of view.
Adding foam and/or length: With a more parallel outline up through the nose, I imagine that would help with your foam distribution with adding a bit more around your chest, perhaps it will help with paddle power, especially if you have your concave under your chest to straighten out your overall rocker line below.
About your tail, the width and vee sounds like they’re in a balance: you need enough tail width to help with lift and reducing drag on the back for the days when you need to maximize speed. the amount of vee to give you the control and turning is something you can’t discount with a wider tail, perhaps you do a very slight vee instead at the width you have now.
One thing I’m considering with a simmons is that on the smaller days, having a bigger tail should help with catching waves if the increased width and displacement can be assets. With the wide tail, it may be more easily picked up and pitched down the face of a smaller wave. If you pulled in the tail more, you’ll have more control but perhaps you may lose some of the planing power and wave fling.
If you like the performance, you succeeded.
I’m no pro builder.
But increasing bottom surface area increases planing surface. Greater planing surface reduces amount of speed needed to plane — i.e. easier to paddle. If you like how it floats, you can hold volume constant and increase bottom surface area to make paddling easier.
Kenny_T, thanks for the thoughts and kind words. Much appreciated.
stoneburner, when do we get to diminishing returns on volume vs. surface area? Other than flex and snapping, why wouldn’t I want a super thin board with lots of surface area whether it be length or width? I have this idea in my head that part of the speed through corners has to do with the volume in the tail area more than the wetted surface area, with the volume causing the board to ride more on the water rather than in it. Buoancy vs. planing. Am I crazy?
Hey @Rnoll98
Thanks for sharing your whole build process. Really cool to see all that come together! Who did you use for the CNC work? Looks like you are in San Diego. Thats funny about straining the tinted resin, haha, I guess you only have to learn that once and it kind of becomes muscle memory. Some of those pigments can be finicky! Thanks again for sharing.
Once planing, volume should not be a factor (unless thicker rails increase drag through turns).
Volume is about buoyancy below planing speed.
